Seeing the world of Manila Chinatown

The topic that was assigned for our group is to have a case study about China and the focus of our study is Chinese food and tea house. I got excited when we were told that we should go to different Chinese restaurants and tea houses and eat there. We decided to go to Banawe, Quezon City because there are some Chinese restaurants found there and might as well tea houses might be there.

First stop, Tasty Dumplings. When I arrived at the restaurant, my groupmates were already eating their own choice of food and what I ordered is dumplings with noodles. The prices of the food were affordable and we think that the prices suit for the food. I often eat Chinese food with my family but for some reasons, this place was somehow "more Chinese" than other restaurants in malls. The group were able to talk to the manager and head cook of the restaurant, and we were able to get some information about the food they serve and other things like who often eats at their restaurants, brief history of the restaurant, etc.

Tasty Dumplings at Banawe, Quezon City

Tasty Dumpling Menu

My Order (Dumpling with Noodles)

Andy and Mark

Andy and her order

Mark and his order

Dan, Jenriel, and Jorell

Interview 

It turns out that there are more Chinese who eats in Tasty Dumplings and often eats on a weekend. The group were amazed to find out that all the food they serve, even their soy sauce were home-made. Overall, the group was satisfied on the experience inside the Tasty Dumpling restaurant.

We were not contented to the restaurants around Banawe, Quezon City. Aside from being few, some tea houses and restaurants were not letting us to conduct a simple interview with them. So the group decided to go to Binondo, where the well-known Chinatown is present.

Welcome to Manila Chinatown

Before we went looking for a teahouse, we saw a shop called Chuan Kee and it sells different kinds of Chinese products. One of our groupmates bought a fortune cookie and we had an experience of eating it and looking to our fortune.

Chuan Kee Chinese Fast Food

Fortune Cookie

We finally found a tea house in Binondo and tried to eat dumplings there. We were able to talk to one of the owners of the tea house as well. We were told some facts about their food and the restaurant. All their food were home-made as well but their sauces were bought from imported stores. We asked the owner how they usually made their food and she said that they cook the food on what it really suppose to taste like. Some of the Chinese restaurants alter the taste of their food because they base the taste n the Filipino customers. But here, she said that they wanted to show to the customers what should be a specific Chinese food taste like. They wanted to serve and let the customers know what Chinese food should be like. We were also curious on why dimsums are always in a set of four. Well, the answer she gave us was simple, because one person could eat two and most of the time, Chinese would eat with someone so one order of dimsum is good for two persons. At the end of it, we enjoyed eating our order from her place.

Dumplings

Andy serving the tea

Looking at my own experience in this trip, China was able to give effect on Filipinos through food. Talking about aesthetics, that is how the Chinese were able to influence our country with their food. Filipino Aesthetics were influenced by both Western and other countries that are part of the East. The Western and Eastern Aesthetic are two different things but both have its own beauty. Taking China for example, they had their own style, own tradition, own practice. Every country is unique but looking at them closely, you will see similarities as well. Filipino Aesthetics were influenced by the West and what we do is to adapt the things we learn from them. We do some practices that the Western countries do and because of that we are colonized by them. Since they were able to interfere with our country before, it became a part of us and Filipino Aesthetics got affected also. Now, a mixture of Western and Eastern Aesthetics can be seen in our country through paintings, sculptures, architectures, and even practices.

We tend to say Eastern Aesthetics, well in fact, our country is part of the East and it's like we tend to exclude ourselves from being an Asian country. Filipino Aesthetics is one of a kind. We just sometimes don't appreciate this. The beauty of the Philippines exceptional despite of different influences that interfered. A great thing as well that the group were able to experience the world of Manila Chinatown because we get to learn the aesthetics of China when it comes to food and for some reasons, I am proud that I am a Filipino because I think Filipinos were better when it comes to food. Filipino Aesthetics  someday will have a great help in reaching the country's golden age.